And yet Shenzhen isn't even a world city. Not remotely close. Outside of China, there're few people who have heard of it. Just goes to show that a large number of skyscrapers isn't as good an indicator of the significance of a city as it used to be.

I would take Shenzhen's 40+ modern glass supertalls over New York's old and outdated tiny concrete shells any day. And it doesn't matter if Shenzhen becomes a world city within 12 years or not. We're only concerned about skylines here at skyscrapercity, nothing else. Los Angeles has more global influence than Shenzhen doesn't mean LA skyline is better than Shenzhen's. And about prominence of cities, China is set to become World's largest economy within 5 years from now, so who knows, maybe Shenzhen will be recognized as the best skyline in the future.

But most of the supertalls that are located in Shenzhen in construction or in planning, have no aesthetic claim. There sprout simply the high glass boxes here and there. Since I prefer rather a balanced skyline with old and new architecture, such as New York or Chicago.

Same here. If it wasn't for the Great Chicago Fire that destroyed virtually everything pre-20th Century, it'd be on par with NYC for me probably. It still has lots of 1930s beauties on the River, but there isn't enough old stuff for my taste. I had about a month where I preferred it to NYC back in November I want to say, but now I feel like NYC is much better.

SkyLine. The clue is in the name. When viewing the city skyline, the aesthetic appeal is from the silhouette. LA, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong all have fantastic silhouettes. Shanghai and Shenzhen are just a wall of buildings with the odd supertall breaking the monotony. More supertalls isn't going to help these cities. There is a bizarre fixation with numbers on this forum. I'd say Charlotte NC has a far better skyline than Shenzhen could ever hope to have.

I would take Shenzhen's 40+ modern glass supertalls over New York's old and outdated tiny concrete shells any day. And it doesn't matter if Shenzhen becomes a world city within 12 years or not. We're only concerned about skylines here at skyscrapercity, nothing else. Los Angeles has more global influence than Shenzhen doesn't mean LA skyline is better than Shenzhen's. And about prominence of cities, China is set to become World's largest economy within 5 years from now, so who knows, maybe Shenzhen will be recognized as the best skyline in the future.

I've heard many things over the years but this tops almost anything. Then let's talk about the countless ugly blocks of Shenzhen. Where do you think those 12 million people live? In shiny supertalls?
Hong Kong is even worse in that regard. It has the best night skyline, hands down. But boy, talk about day skyline ... all those fugly concrete blocks.

You need to take a closer look what's going in New York. Five 400m+ towers are in the works as we speak ... and about a dozen supertalls.

I've heard many things over the years but this tops almost anything. Then let's talk about the countless ugly blocks of Shenzhen. Where do you think those 12 million people live? In shiny supertalls?
Hong Kong is even worse in that regard. It has the best night skyline, hands down. But boy, talk about day skyline ... all those fugly concrete blocks.

You need to take a closer look what's going in New York. Five 400m+ towers are in the works as we speak ... and about a dozen supertalls.

l agree with you: for me, now, HK is No.1, but in future NY - when all proposals, all constructions will be completed, it become No.1. No question about that, l think.

and nothing beats the global icons like one world trade centre, empire state building and chrysler building.

By your logic, Paris skyline is better than that of Singapore's, because Paris has Eiffel Tower

New York's construction will stall after it's supertall construction concludes within a decade. But Shenzhen's construction has just begun, and if China's economy doesn't crash dramatically Shenzhen will own the no.1 skyline by 2025. Most people have never looked and Shenzhen properly and they assume Shenzhen is only building supertalls like Dubai, no skyscrapers (200-299 meters) or highrises (100-199 meters). This is not the case. Shenzhen has lots of empty plots which will be filled with both skyscrapers and supertalls. If Shenzhen is truly able to construct all of its 40+ supertalls projects, each and every skyline will appear minuscule when scaled next to Shenzhen for comparison. At this magnitude, density will become a non-factor for cities which have lesser quantity of supertalls (Shenzhen itself will turn into a very dense city unlike Dubai).

Shenzhen will become like Himalayas, New York will be like Andes. Global influence has nothing to do skyline rankings (if it did then New York would've stayed at the top, not Hong Kong). I'm pretty sure Emporis, Skyscraperpage etc. will agree with me by 2025

But I also can understand if you prefer New York, because the buildings there are really beautiful (the Crysler), also it is (together with Chicago)the only city with old Art Deco Skyscrapers.

Where ever did you get that idea from? Art deco was simply a new style that became popular about a century ago. In the 1920s, every city on the planet with a demand for skyscrapers built art deco. I think you mean that Chicago and New York built the more of them and taller versions of them. That's simply a product of being the largest cities of the day (that built skyscrapers).